Orthodox Christianity in the life of a pre-revolution classical Russian university (the case of Tomsk Imperial University)

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleПравославие в жизни дореволюционного классического российского университета (на примере императорского томского университета)
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Scientific theories and disciplines > Medicine - Ecumenism and dialogue > Education - Modes of interaction
6. Publication date 20-01-2018
7. lemma work Хаминов, Д. В. [Author]. Православие в жизни дореволюционного классического российского университета (на примере императорского томского университета
8. lemma manifestations СИБИРСКИЙ МЕДИЦИНСКИЙ ЖУРНАЛ (ТОМСК)
9. Keywords Russian education system - Higher education - Apologetics - medicine - Russian Orthodox Church - Russian Empire
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <div class="tab active"> <p>Хаминов, Д. В. & Некрылов, С. А. (2009). Православие в жизни дореволюционного классического российского университета (на примере Императорского Томского университета). <em>Сибирский медицинский журнал (Томск). </em>Retrieved from <a href="http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pravoslavie-v-zhizni-dorevolyutsionnogo-klassicheskogo-rossiyskogo-universiteta-na-primere-imperatorskogo-tomskogo-universiteta">http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/pravoslavie-v-zhizni-dorevolyutsionnogo-klassicheskogo-rossiyskogo-universiteta-na-primere-imperatorskogo-tomskogo-universiteta</a> </p> </div> <p><br /><br /></p>
12. Lemma body

    1. On May 25, 1888 the first Siberian university in the city of Tomsk was inaugurated. It was to have departments of history/philology, physics and maths, law, and medicine. It was the ninth university in the Russian Empire and the first one in Asia. However, Tomsk Imperial University (TIU) immediately faced the problem of lack of students because of the small number of schools in Siberia. This is why the university was granted the right to admit religious seminaries. TIU was in fact the only university that acquired such a right and seminary graduates were to pass a test to be able to enter. Even this measure did not help to fill up all departments and the administration had to reduce the university to one single department. This was the department of medicine – a discipline considered to be the most wanted in the region. The department of law opened only in 1898; maths, physics and history/philology – in 1917. In 1902, 141 students out of 540 were from secular schools and 393 were from religious seminaries.

       There were only six religious seminaries in Siberia: in Tobolsk, Tomsk, Blagoveshenks, Irkusts, Krasnoyarsk, and Yakutsk. This way TIU became the only establishment in the whole country where graduates of religious seminaries had the opportunity to study medicine and law on a university level. It is not surprising that only 35 students in 1902 came from Siberia, while 345 students came from European Russia. The statistics shows that 42% of all students were from the clergy, 89% of all students were Orthodox Christian, 7.5% Jewish, 3.5% Catholics, Muslims, Siberian pagans and others.

       TIU had chairs of theology and foreign languages. D.N. Belikov (1852-1932), whom the authors of the article characterize as an intellectual, scholar, historian of Siberia, theologian, and religious person, taught at TIU. In 1907 Belikov was assigned to head the education department at the highest Russian Orthodox administration body, the Synod, in St. Petersburg. I.Y. Galakhov (1865-1938) replaced Belikov as head of the chair of theology at TIU. Galakhov taught courses on religion, its attitude toward science, and philosophy in religion. As at that time the anticlerical sentiment was very strong among students, one of the main subjects in theology courses was apologetics that studied evidence of truth in religious teaching.

       TIU also had a church on its campus that played an important role in the social life of students. However, everything changed after the Revolution and in 1920 Soviet authorities closed the chair of theology and the university church. According to the authors, the Russian Orthodox Church had been supporting the scientific studies of students by providing moral support and ethical guidance and thus had played a positive role in education in Russia.